Egyptian constitution suspended
Egypt’s ruling military council has suspended the constitution. On state television a spokesman said a committee will be formed to draft a new constitution for the country. The council will stay in power for 6 months, or until elections are held.
The same cabinet appointed by ousted President Hosni Mubarak will oversee the transition. Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq says the main priority is to restore security, and the economy.
“Our internal economic position is solid and cohesive”, he said. “We have enough reserves in the coming period and our situation is comforting, very comforting.”
But he also warned that if instability continues, there may be some obstacles.
The stock market has remained closed since the beginning of the uprising, and the Finance Minister says latest forecasts indicate Egypt’s economic growth slowing to between 3.5 and 4 per cent in the coming financial year.
That’s still higher than most western countries but lower than the 6 per cent that had been forecast before the revolution.
Coalition forces launch attack on Libyan targets
British and American ships and submarines have fired more than 110 cruise missiles at over 20 targets in Libya, targetting air defence systems and fuel depots near Tripoli.
British aircraft have also entered Libyan airspace in what has been baptised Operation Odyessy Dawn. Earlier in the day the French said one of their planes had knocked out four tanks near Benghazi.
Thousands of Libyans have formed a “human shield” around Colonel Gaddafi’s compound in the capital to protect it from air attack.
To read – Libya: a timeline of international diplomacy
The French carried out wide ranging aerial reconnaissance missions across Libya all afternoon ahead of the evening bombardment. They also patrolled the skies above Benghazi in an attempt to halt operations by Gaddafi loyalists. The city was under heavy bombardment all day.
Coalition navies, including Canadian vessels, are now in position to blockade Libya, enforcing a ban on arms sales to the Libyan government.
Bahrain’s crown prince orders military off streets
Bahrain’s crown prince has ordered all military from the streets in an effort to end violent unrest which has killed at least six people. The latest move comes after the Shi’ite opposition rejected calls for dialogue until troops were withdrawn.
Yesterday, an anti-government demonstration ended in panic when security forces opened fire on demonstrators in the capital Manama. More than 60 people are reported to have been injured in the clashes, many suffering gunshot wounds to the head and upper body. President Barack Obama condemned the violence and urged restraint.
A young woman spoke to euronews from a hospital where the wounded were being treated: “We are in Salmaniyah hospital. We’re away from the place where the clashes are happening. But we can hear the clashes, the explosions. A witness just came from there and said the ground was red. The ground is red, painted with blood,” she said.
Friday’s fresh violence came on the same day funerals were held for the four people killed when police broke up a protest camp on Thursday.
Afterwards, about 1000 angry protesters gathered outside the hospital.
Along with the dead, hundreds have been wounded in the violent unrest in the tiny gulf island kingdom.
Obama launches attack on US deficit
Halving the US deficit by 2013. That is the aim set out in the president’s new budget plan as Republicans prepare for an all-out fight in Congress.
Through a series of spending cuts and tax increases Barack Obama and his Democrats want to shave off $1.1 trillion dollars over the next ten years.
While he said annual domestic spending will be frozen, critics complained he had been vague on how to cover major outlays such as the Medicare programme.
“While it’s absolutely essential to live within our means, while we are absolutely committed to working with Democrats and Republicans to find further savings and to look at the whole range of budget issues, we can’t sacrifice our future in the process,” said President Barack Obama.
Obama used a visit to a Baltimore school to present the budget using the venue to stress investment in areas such as education and broadband internet would continue.
But the Republicans who have already unveiled much tougher proposals to reign in the rising US debt, plan to resist and say this tax-and-spend president has not gone far enough.
Journalists shown rubble in Gaddafi’s compound
TV crews have been taken into Colonel Gaddafi’s heavily fortified compound in Tripoli and shown the remains of a building said to have been destroyed in a missile attack.
Rubble and weapons casings were scattered around but there were no other signs of last night’s apparent attack.
A short walk away is the brightly-lit tent where Gaddafi receives his guests.
Read: Libya: a timeline of international diplomacy
A government spokesman said the attacks came from what he called the “aggressive and barbaric forces targeting the Muslim Arab people of Libya.” He said the Western powers promised not to target civilians or Gaddafi himself and this proves they are lying.
Crowds of Gaddafi loyalists are camping out in the grounds of the sprawling compound, a human shield against air strikes. They gathered outside a building ruined in the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli – a symbolic site of anti-Western defiance for Gaddafi supporters.
Do you think the air strikes in Libya should actively target Muammar Gaddafi?
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As young as you feel on high-wire
In India, a 91-year-old dare-devil has proved that age is no obstacle, by crossing a 300 metre deep ravine on a high-wire in the western state of Maharashtra.
Narajan Krishna Mahajan said he believes that if your attitude is strong, your body will also be strong.
He said he did it to boost the morale of young people, and that he does not consider himself old.
Berlusconi’s party takes poll dive
Despite the hundreds of thousands of women who marched all over Italy calling for him to quit, Silvio Berlusconi again refused to budge today, again insisting it is all just a left wing plot to slander him, as the opposition cannot beat him in elections.
However his former ally and co-founder of his party, Gianfranco Fini, has now formed a party of his own, ‘Future & Liberty’. He insists Berlusconi faces a revolt within his ‘People of Freedom’ party, and that criticism of the leader is now not confined to just the usual suspects on the left. He wants his immediate resignation and fresh elections.
At the party’s launch Fini’s attacks were his most outspoken yet, and they have been picked up in today’s papers.
In the latest opinion poll Berlusconi’s party has slumped to just 27.2 percent support, and tomorrow a court in Milan should rule on whether or not to indict Berlusconi on charges of paying for sex with a minor, and lying to police to obtain her release from custody.
How Libya unrest impacts the global economy
The aftershocks from the unrest in Libya are also being felt across global financial markets.
Libya is the world’s 12th largest exporter of crude and the price per barrel has shot to a two-and-a-half year high amid investor fear that production could be disrupted.
It follows a speech by one of Colonel Gaddafi’s sons, Saif, who warned that all foreign oil companies might have to leave the country.
Rising oil prices can accelerate inflation and eat into companies’ profits, further unsettling an already rocky global economy.
The US lifted sanctions on Libya when Gaddafi compensated the families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing.
With free trade now a possibility, foreign energy companies lined up to do business with a man once considered as a pariah on the international stage.
The OPEC member is Africa’s fourth largest oil producer after Nigeria, Algeria and Angola. It produces up to 1.8 million barrels per day and holds estimated reserves of 42 billion barrels
Eighty percent of its crude exports are sold to European countries such as France, Germany and particularly Italy.
Libya has deep economic ties with Italy, its former colonial master. The two nations signed a friendship treaty in 2008 and Italy is now the biggest foreign investor in the North Africa country.
Libyan investors have used oil wealth to buy large stakes in a number of Italian companies including oil giant ENI, carmaker Fiat and even a 7.5 percent share of Juventus football club. Tripoli’s investments in Italy are worth some 3.6 billion euros.
While Libya has some of the highest living standards in Africa, some estimates indicate one third of its people live below the poverty line.
The question now is what happens if the violence escalates in Libya? It would come just as many Western economies are emerging from the global economic downturn.
Chinese police clampdown on anti-government protests
Despite their efforts to block information spreading about the Arab uprisings, anti-government protests have erupted in several cities. But an emphatic show of force by police in Shanghai quickly ended the protest.
It was a similar story in downtown Beijing where lines of police checked passers-by and warned away demonstrators.
A rash of detentions and censorship of online discussions have shown that the Communist Party is concerned about any challenge to its rule.
Residents in Hong Kong, however, enjoy a little more freedom. Some inspired by the so-called Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia took to the streets. Police soon ended the demonstration.
A call for protests a week ago brought out few people. But dozens of dissidents and human rights activists have reportedly been detained or warned to avoid any action which risks social stability.
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